MICROMANAGEMENT:HINDRANCE FOR POSITIVE TEAM

What is Micromanagement? 

Micromanagement is a management style. In this style, a manager closely monitors and/or controls the work of his/her subordinates or employees.

Micromanagement is generally considered to have a negative connotation, mainly due to the fact that it shows a lack of freedom in the workplace.

The online dictionary Encarta defined micromanagement as "attention to small details in management: control [of] a person or a situation by paying extreme attention to small details"

Dictionary.com defines micromanagement as "management or control with excessive attention to minor details".

Micromanagement is exactly what it sounds like; someone trying to personally control and monitor everything in a team, situation, or place.

In Micromanagement style, managers would either watch your every move or demand progress reports more often than is necessary. They would likely chastise you for the slightest mistake or for carrying out a task differently to how they would have done it.

Signs of Micromanagement

Micro-managers lack personal leadership and tend to:

1.      Reluctant for delegating the works to team.

2.      Vastly themselves in the work assigned to others.

3.      Look at the detail instead of the big picture.

4.      Discourage others from making decisions.

5.      Get involved in the work of others without consulting them.

6.      Monitor what’s least important and expect regular reports on miscellany

7.      Push aside the experience and knowledge of colleagues

8.      Loose loyalty and commitment

9.      Focus on the wrong priorities

10. Have a de-motivated team

11.  Frequently feel dissatisfied with other people’s work

How it dangerous for team?

In reality, most of us see it as management’s attempt at digging its fingers deep into the pie of those actually doing the work. It’s a way for management to ensure that tasks are performed in a very precise manner – in other words, management’s way. Problem is, this isn’t always the right – or most productive – way of doing things. And that’s just one of the issues with micromanagement. Let’s take a look at some of the other dangers that come along with this style of management and why you should avoid it.

1-Loss of trust - Micromanagement will eventually lead to a massive breakdown of trust. Your team will no longer see you as a manager. When trust is gone, two things can happen: A serious loss of productivity, along with a loss of employees. Remember, trust is a two-way street: Your staff must be able to trust you as much as you trust them. Micromanagement destroys trust.

2- Loss Of control - When you micromanage your team, you drastically limit your style you also limit your ability to communicate and, in the end, your ability to manage. Result, you lost your control on your team.

3-Team with low confidence - After being micromanaged, your team will begin to depend on you, rather than having the confidence to perform tasks on their own. Micromanagement makes your team feel like they can no longer handle the work without your constant guidance. If you micromanage too much, your employees’ skills, talents and insights can fall to the wayside, leaving you with a team that only knows how to do what it's told.

4-Your own burnout - One big, yet simple reason that micromanagement is something you should never practice: It’s downright exhausting. Looking over so many shoulders every day will very quickly burn you out. Eventually you’ll grow to hate your job, straight down to the very company that employs you. Managers are not the only victims of burnout; as you flame out, you will very likely take your Team with you. Micromanagement is not only bad for your team, but it can take a terrible toll on your physical and mental health.

5-High attrition rate- When employees are micromanaged, they often do one thing; quit. Considering the reasons why managers micromanage (ego, insecurity, inexperience, perfectionism, arrogance), it’s simply not worth the high turnover rate. Having to constantly train and re-train staff not only robs your department of momentum, it affects the company’s bottom line and destroys morale. Friendships are made and destroyed, and eventually this will crush the spirit of your staff. Micromanagement often leads people to quit.

6-Lack of autonomy - When you micromanage, your employees begin to feel like they’re losing their autonomy. When this happens, they’ll slowly lose the desire to do anything but that which you demand, and little more. No one will step outside the proverbial box or go the extra mile for a task.

How to escape from it?

Now you have identified micro-managerial tendencies and seen why this style is bad. What can you do if you know you are exhibiting such behaviors – or are being subjected to them by a supervisor?

From the micro-manager's perspective, the best way to build healthier relationships with team may be the most direct: Talk to them

1- Delegate authority -Once you assign tasks to teams, it is better to give them enough time and space to learn and manage on their own. While you can assure your availability in times of difficulty, by no means keep checking on them every 5 minutes, just in case they need help.

2-Hire the right people- Lack of trust is one of the primary reasons managers tend to rely on micromanagement. This mistrust can be either on the employee’s motivation to get the job done or capability. Either way, you can avoid these situations in the first place by hiring the right people for the job.

3-Involve the team in decision making - This means that instead of you solely deciding what your team should achieve and how to achieve it, let your team tell you what goals they can meet and how they plan to do so. Managers should try acting more like facilitators with open communication rather than taskmasters hovering over employees.

4-Define expectations clearly- Miscommunication can lead to unnecessary project mishaps or even failures, affecting manager’s reliance on their teams. You can avoid this by being clear from the start of the task. Before delegating tasks or a project, stay clear on the objectives, the results you are looking for and reference to similar tasks completed in the past. Providing examples, tools, and resources wherever you can is even better. Frequent feedback can keep team assured they are on the right track.

5-Get everyone aligned on the high level goals - When people understand how their work fits into the bigger picture, they’re able to see the importance of even the most minor or mundane of the tasks. It’s clear that everyone’s jobs contribute to something much bigger and more important than themselves. This immediately lessens your need to micromanage.

6-Focus on the metrics - Since we’re all clear on what the high level goals are, everyone is free to experiment and try new things on their own—as long as they can measure the results. The data is always our “responsible tool,” giving us the verdict on if our efforts were fruitful or not. Instead of relentlessly about measuring the performance of just about everything, focus on predefined metrics.

I would like to end this article with quotation of Steve Job -

“It does not make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”